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Publishers and Authors Beware: FONT PIRACY

First there was/is Book Piracy, which we cannot control. Big publishers, small presses or self-publishers, it doesn’t matter. People will upload and download your baby whether you like it or not

Then there’s Photograph Piracy. We’ve learned not to use photographs without giving the photographers their kudos. These days, I just buy whatever photograph I want to put on my blog. End of stress.

Now there’s Font Piracy.

You CANNOT download fonts online and use them on your books WITHOUT authorization from the publisher. That is stealing, plain and simple.

Today, I got a BIG scare when I was contacted by this very nice, polite gentleman that I’d used his fonts on the covers of my books without his permission. His name is Juan Casco (he gave me permission to use his name and approved this post). His beautiful font is Romance fatal serif. http://www.dafont.com/es/romance-fatal-serif.font

He has the right to be angry if his beautiful fonts are being used without compensation After all, he worked really hard to come up with them just like we work hard to write our books. In fact, I stopped by his website and he specifically states that the fonts are for private use not for commercial.

The problem is I didn’t download the fonts. I’m not computer savvy to pull that move. I wouldn’t know how to add them to the list of fonts on my software. When my hero in Runes and Immortals was nominated for YA Crush Tourney, a friend asked me to download certain fonts and use them and I was totally clueless. Happy I didn’t.

Back to fonts and piracy. Since the book in question was my first attempt at self-publishing (Betrayed before Spencer Hill Press)

I had to explain that I used Adobe Photoshop to create that particular cover but a friend finished the cover for me for free and she is the one who added the title. Now whether my friend got permission to use his fonts is another story.

As if that’s not bad enough, my books Runes and Immortals, also has his fonts. My name on both covers is done in his fonts (beautiful, aren’t they?).

He’s contacted my talented cover designer about this, but I spent the entire afternoon discussing this situation with Mr. Casco. I took screen shots of the Adobe Photoshop file among other things, but we finally reached a satisfactory arrangement because as much as I hate piracy, I hate to be accused of something I didn’t do. I have never downloaded fonts in my life.

The bottom line: DO NOT DOWNLOAD FONTS and use them WITHOUT FIRST CONTACTING THE PUBLISHER.

Mr. Casco was very polite and understanding, but not all people are like that.

About Ednah Walters

Author of several YA/teen series: The Guardian Legacy YA books about children of the fallen angels who nuke demons between classes and high school drama. Runes series (NA) about Immortal soul reapers and their interraction with humans. And contemporary romance series about an Irish-American family on the west coast and their search for love in these trying times

18 thoughts on “Publishers and Authors Beware: FONT PIRACY”

I’ll be sure to delete this font from my computer right away if i have it. I don’t believe in the whole “free for non-commercial use only”. It is either free or it isn’t. The vast majority of people probably don’t even understand some free fonts are non-commercial only. I do buy fonts when I find one worth paying for, but if a font is free, then it should be free. Otherwise, just sell the thing. Don’t confuse people by claiming its free but then hiding conditions in fine print or a text file.

I have this font on my computer by long time.
I Purchased many fonts over the years. However, I have downloaded and used some free fonts, because some fonts have very high prices and only a publisher can afford them.

I just want to tell you that I contacted Mr. Casco to make a donation or eventually buy the font.

This is such a typical modern dilemma–we’re so happy to download stuff for free, without thinking about whoever created them. And forgetting that we rely on people paying to download our books! This is an excellent warning, Ednah–thanks for it.